I have a second blog, Writopia which focuses on Dan Brown's pattern of falsehoods and embellishment of his personal achievements.

Thursday, April 20, 2006

The Battle Continues

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals violated its own rules regarding summary judgement and about considering works as a whole in copyright infringement cases and has affirmed the District Court ruling.

We are currently preparing our petition to have the U.S. Supreme Court consider the case.

The biggest issue (other than the Second Circuit not following its own rules) is the fact that the Ninth Circuit out here on the West Coast has standards regarding infringement that are significantly different from the Second Circuit's especially when it comes to interpreting the lay reader role with regard to summary judgement.

The 9th consistently denies summary judgement (allowing a trial on the facts) even in cases where there are far more significant issues and far fewer of them than we have shown so far in our case.

And while the 9th has a reputation as the most overturned circuit in the nation, the Supreme Court as consistently upheld its rulings in copyright infringement.

I do know from my Con Law course at Cornell Law school that the SC loves cases where two major circuits have substantially different standards of adjudicating/interpreting the same issue ...

And the fact that SCOTUS has affirmed so many 9th cir copyright decisions will make this interesting.

This could be a very interesting case.

Ironically, if RH had not sued me to recover legal fees, I would probably have bowed out after the District Court decision when I realized that the court system is nothing like we learned in civics class ... "of the rich, by the rich and for the rich" is how things should be explained ...

And, as several of my own attorneys have said, "the court system is not about justice, it is about winning."

Thus, all the verified lies in the RH briefs are okay ... because winning is far more important than the truth.

I believe in fighting for what is right, but when the deck is so totally rigged, you have to think twice.

Sure it's about winning. And that includes suppression of information. What we need to know is what can be taken from other writers in the name of research. That's what needs to be settled, so I think they'll probably take the case.